Thursday, January 31, 2008

A Bit More On Loving God

I am done! What a great read this book was. The last portion of the book spoke volumes to me; the words kept leaping off the pages at me. Charles Colson wrote about how we (Christians) are to be the church --- very relevant at this time for me in terms of the church plant journey. See ... God had something to tell me when He urged me to pick up this book just one more time! I'm sure glad I did! :-)Let me share them here:

"...the church is an organism not an organization --- a movement, not a monument. It is not part of the community; it is a whole new community. It is not an orderly gathering; it is a new order with new values, often in sharp conflict with the values of the surrounding society.The believer's ministry is being Christ's person right where he or she is, in the marketplace or the home, every moment of every day. This is part of the everyday business of holiness. This is the very nature of loving God.

Taking the gospel to people wherever they are is frontline evangelism. Frontline love. It is our one hope for breaking down barriers and for restoring the sense of community, of caring for one another, that our decadent, impersonalized culture has sucked out of us. It is the most urgent challenge for the holy nation.

But the true church is not held together by any structure man creates; it is not an organization. It is alive, its life breathed into it by a sovereign God. Its heart beats with God's heart. It is one with Him and moves as His Spirit moves --- where He chooses and often against the designs of man. The life function of this living organism is to love the God who created it --- to care for others out of obedience to Christ, to heal those who hurt, to take away fear, to restore community, to belong to one another, to proclaim the Good News while living it out. The church is the invisible made visible."

Loving God is --- to believe, to repent, to obey, to be holy, to bind up the brokenhearted, and to serve. Lots to think about, lots to digest, and lots to live out!

1 Peter 2:9 (NIV) --- "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."